Marie Claire

Flash, bang, wallop - what a picture!

April 8 - 14, 2009
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I was flicking through the channels late one night last week and came across a programme called Paparazzi, which follows the photographers of London-based company Big Pictures around the UK (and sometimes abroad) in their hunt for well ... the big picture.

Unless you've had your head buried in the sand for the last 20 years or so there's no ignoring the fact that a celebrity has little place they can hide but watching this programme I have to admit I was completely shocked at the length the paparazzi will go to get a picture of even the most 'who cares' scenarios.

Buying camouflage clothing and war paint and waiting in bushes, high speed car chases and stopping in the middle of the roads, blocking traffic just to get a picture of someone walking out of a shop.

Sitting outside houses for days on end just to get a blurred picture of the back of someone's head as they get in or out of a car millions of miles away.

Trespassing, climbing trees and even hiding underwater just so that they can get a picture of a celebrity doing something we all do on a daily basis - as if just because you're famous you suddenly stop breathing the air around you and putting one foot in front of the other as you walk down the street.

Watching the programme I was both disgusted and fascinated at the same time. It's beyond me why anyone in their right mind would want to go to all the deceit and trouble for a simple picture that will be looked at for a few seconds at best and then forgotten.

While the company owner himself, Darryn Lyons, was quite obviously making insane amounts of money on the backs of his photographers, the photographers themselves didn't look like they'd changed clothes or bathed in months, let alone made pot loads of money.

It quite simply looks like one of the worst jobs in the world but as one of the photographers said: "If there wasn't a demand for the pictures, we'd all be out of jobs". And quite frankly, I can't understand why they're not.







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